Michigan Football, Team 139, 2018 Season

[Jeff Buchanan]

M's Compliance Department submitted the waiver request for Shea Patterson yesterday. This is a good recap of how the process works. Bottom line: M will know if Patterson is declared eligible to play for M in 2018 before spring practice is scheduled to start on 3/23/18.

No one is predicting an outcome in this matter according to reports and posts I've read. That's because the NCAA is utterly unpredictable in everything they do.

https://247sports.com/college/michigan/Article/The-appeal-process-for-former-Ole-Miss-quarterback-Shea-Pattersons-immediate-eligibility-at-Michigan-is-now-officially-underway-115647536/Amp?__twitter_impression=true

[hack]

I'll be pleasantly surprised if he plays.

[Hannibal]

I don't think that it will make a difference.

The only question that matters really is whether we get the "win with character, win with cruelty" Harbaugh who looks like he wishes he could be playing QB in every game, or whether we get the one who glumly watched his shittiliy coached offense stumble to an 8-5 season in 2017.

[Whitley]

If you can get the offensive line to just be average consistently that will go a long ways to freeing up the offensive potential.

[Jeff Buchanan]

This is a good read from Sam Web. What I found interesting is how the Houston Nutt defamation law suit v. Ole' Miss tends to support Patterson's claim that he was mislead. Ole' Miss settled that suit out of court and apologized to Nutt.

What was cooked up by Ole' Miss prior to the weekend right before NSD when Patterson, et. al. committed was an egregious, pre-planned scheme to blame all the misdeeds of Ole' Miss on Houston Nutt and create the belief that nothing was going to come from NCAA sanctions going forward. The purpose of that scheme was to get recruits signed BEFORE the release of NCAA's Letter of Allegations.

Bottom line: Ole' Miss is highly unlikely to contest Patterson's 2018 eligibility. The NCAA will rule in his favor and Patterson will be eligible in 2018.

https://247sports.com/college/michigan/Article/The-appeal-process-for-Shea-Patterson-took-a-giant-step-Monday-when-it-was-sent-t-the-NCAA-Now-the-waiting-game-for-a-decision-is-underway-and-it-may-not-last-long-115674494/Amp?__twitter_impression=true

[Detroit Dan]

Good news. That jibes with something I read that NCAA will have to endure more legal actions if Patterson request is denied, and that is something they'd rather not have to go through. Let's hope this is right and Patterson gets to compete for the QB spot beginning in spring camp

[WM Wolverine]

Speight still coming back if Patterson doesn't get approved?

Not sure how Id feel about Speight if I were on the team and he came back

[Detroit Dan]

Let's hope that's a moot question (soon to be irrelevant), Wm.

[Jeff Buchanan]

This has been up for a couple hours but Mo Hurst has been diagnosed with some type of heart condition. No word on what it is but if he doesn't get cleared, and even if he does, it may hurt his draft status.

Given he has never had previous symptoms (to our knowledge) and this was not discovered during his HS and CFB career, I doubt it is anything serious. My guess in order of probability from top to bottom is:

(1) 1st Degree Heart Block. This is a common "hear condition" that involves an arrhythmia. The time between the initiation of the signal to beat the heart and the beat is longer than it should be. There are several variations and degrees of this condition. A 1st Degree block is nothing but if he's getting a screening PE from an NFL team they are going to see it and call it. It has to be worked up and it will be.

(2) A variation or higher degree heart Block. You don't have these without symptoms - chest pain, shortness of breath, exercise intolerance. I suppose this is possible in a stoic personality and football players are such folks.

(3) A valvular defect. If these are serious enough, you'll pick it up in childhood sometimes as an infant. You can have one of these and have no symptoms but you don't need anything other than a stethoscope to identify it. Highly unlikely he has one of these.

(4) A cardiomyopathy or enlarged heart. Athletes can have these; again, they can be completely asymptomatic. They can be found with a good cardiac exam done by a provider who is good at these .... not everyone is. They can also be seen with certain findings on an EKG. If a problem, There will be symptoms. If not a problem it can become one in the future. I'd worry about this if he actually had this. It will probably disqualify him.

This isn't an exhaustive list. If Hurst had been previously diagnosed with one of these conditions, he would have had a thorough work-up and if there was anything pointing to a contraindication to athletic participation, he would not be where he is today.

So, given he's been playing football for over 10y, if he had a previously diagnosed cardiac condition in the past, he would have been cleared to play. If you played sports in HS, you may recall filling out paper-work that your Doc had to sign to clear you. I did dozens of these. I found one female with a heart murmurer. She was worked up with an Echo and she had a condition called Mitral Valve Prolapse. In her case it was benign and she was ultimately cleared to play by a Cardiologist.

https://a.msn.com/r/2/BBJPawl?m=en-us

[Jeff Buchanan]

Update ...... Hurst with potentially a viral cardiomyopathy. Temporary and resolves.

Utah defensive lineman Lowell Lotulelei said Hurst told him Saturday that he had been diagnosed with the same heart condition as Lotulelei’s older brother, Star.

“I just found out in the NFLPA meeting that we just had. He just said, ‘Star was your brother?’ And I said yeah. He’s like, ‘Man, I just got the same thing that he did,’” Lowell Lotulelei told reporters. “Obviously I didn’t go through it, so I don’t really know what he’s feeling like. But I kind of understand the disappointment just because my brother trained just like he trained and you’re expecting one thing and getting another. I feel for him. It sucks. But I think he’ll be fine just like my brother was.”

Five years ago, Star Lotulelei arrived at the combine as the expected first pick in that year’s draft.

Things changed dramatically after doctors identified an “abnormal” test on his heart.

Lotulelei then sought additional opinions, eventually was cleared to exercise and was taken by Carolina with the 14th overall selection in the 2013 draft. He has missed only four games in five NFL seasons.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2018/03/03/report-maurice-hurst-wont-work-out-nfl-combine-after-being-diagnosed-heart-condition/391986002/

[Jeff Buchanan]

Tim Drevno to USC as Assistant Coach, RBs coach under HC Clay Helton.

http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2018/03/report_ex-michigan_oc_tim_drev_1.html

[Detroit Dan]

Thanks Jeff, for the reports on Hurst. Quite a relief to hear that it's probably not too serious.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Grad transfer prospect Calvin Anderson has chosen Texas over M. This should not surprise anyone nor should it disappoint.

Possible contributors at LT are JBB, Ulizio, and Runyan, all are known quantities with another summer to improve.

Filiaga, Hudson, Honigford, and Steuber are coming off redshirts. I think it's likely that one or more of these guys will compete for a starting spot on the OL.

I don't think that Grant Newsome is going to play in any meaningful way. JMO.

I do think that Warriner is going to improve on Drevno's dreadfull coaching performance of that unit. I expect that based on last year's experience with QB injuries that a huge amount of attention is going to be placed on improving the sack rate and working to prevent QBs from taking the terrible hits they absorbed in 2017.

It would be very hard to not see a modicum of improvement in sack rate and QB performance.

[Jeff Buchanan]

In other news ........ Ed Warriner has been officially announced as OL Coach.

He vaccated an analyst spot that was filled by the hiring of Ron Prince.

I'm not going to regurgitate what most sites are saying about him. Generally a bad hire; ok if he has nothing to do with coaching the OL or having anything to do with the players. His role is expected to involve anylizing the OL play of teams M will face going forward.

A bit of a head scratching hire.

[hack]

That's a bummer, but it did always seem like a longshot. Still -- if we don't have a MUCH BETTER OL next year, given a coaching change and the elimination of a confusing chain of command, then fuck it all anyways.